Monday, March 7, 2011

paper-thin walls

I have decided to postpone my Facebook Lent. In case you didn`t realize, we are moving from Japan to the USA in a little over two weeks. TWO WEEKS. I need Facebook for coordinating events and such, and moving internationally is the worst time to abstain from it. I still plan on having a Facebook-free month though, maybe in April or May, when my life is a little more settled and I don`t need it to get in contact with people.

In other news, I slept for multiple hours last night. This is a huge accomplishment for my overactive-overly-anxious brain. I feel calm about moving back and have even applied for a job, but maybe my brain knows something that I don`t. It wasn`t so bad at the beginning of the week, just waking up a few times throughout the night, but by the end, rest was nonexistent. I couldn`t make myself fall asleep, no matter how tired I was. It was like the opposite of a Freddy Kruger movie. I feared being awake.

Last night, I blessedly slept enough to have a dream. An actual dream that had a plot! A dream means that I experienced REM, which is what people need to feel well-rested. I am learning to calm my mind enough so that I forget to be anxious and trick myself into going to sleep like a normal person.

All was going well until our upstairs neighbor decided that their tatami mats needed to be swept at 6:00 in the morning. I try not to hate anyone, but sometimes I want to throw a rock through their window. It isn`t their fault for having children and for having to keep their home clean. It isn`t their fault that Japanese apartment buildings are flimsy and sound carries like the walls are made of paper--because some of them are literally made of paper.

I try to be fair, but sometimes I beat the ceiling with a broom handle. I wish I knew morse code so I could beat out "Please make your children stop jumping" or "Please stop bowling with your children" or "Please stop scraping the floor over and over again and slamming doors for the love of all that is peaceful in the world." But a few good taps will usually do the trick.

The whole world has paper-thin walls when you are as light a sleeper as I am.

This is the kind of thing that occupies your waking hours when you feel old: resting and eating and trying not to comtemplate your own mortality.